‘It’s Worse Than Ever’
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The events of October 7th shook the world and greatly impacted different intersections of people. Arab Americans sit at a unique intersection. As an Arab American journalist, Notes From America producer Suzanne Gaber set out to find a place for her to process the complex emotions she’s been feeling since that day. She visits the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, NJ and speaks with the center’s executive director, Rania Mustafa, to hear how the center is prioritizing communal mental health resources during this time. Then, host Kai Wright is joined by Palestinian-American psychotherapist, Lena Derhally. They open the phones to Arab Americans and allies to address specific mental health concerns as news continues to develop out of Gaza and the West Bank.Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter): @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio.
“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How are you feeling in this moment? |
| 0:04.0 | I just had a lot of guilt. |
| 0:05.0 | It's hard to focus on like day-to-day things |
| 0:08.0 | because I just feel like I'm so consumed by what's happening |
| 0:11.0 | in like Palestine, especially in Gaza. |
| 0:14.0 | The heart will be broken. |
| 0:16.0 | Even sometimes I can't breathe. |
| 0:18.0 | I sometimes, while lying when I watch that TV, |
| 0:22.0 | I can't take any breath |
| 0:24.0 | and I open the windows, open the doors |
| 0:27.0 | because I can't take it anymore. |
| 0:29.0 | I don't want to do the same things that I used to do. |
| 0:32.0 | Doing even my simplest homework assignments, |
| 0:34.0 | I cannot focus because in the back of my mind, |
| 0:37.0 | all I think about is how they're struggling |
| 0:39.0 | and what they're going through. |
| 0:41.0 | And it's honestly very, very painful. |
| 0:43.0 | As a person, I think dealing with this stuff, |
| 0:45.0 | I've never felt more subhuman than I have in these last few weeks. |
| 0:59.0 | It's Notes from America, I'm Kai Wright. |
| 1:11.0 | Welcome to the show. |
| 1:14.0 | We're going to talk this week about mental health |
... |
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